Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is coming in early December.
Hearthstone is heading to the mean streets of Gadgetzan with its latest expansion, and remixing the game as players know it by adding in new tri-class cards. IGN’s already debuted several new cards that hint how the Gadgetzan expansion will mix things up when it’s released in December, but we also got teases of what’s to come straight from the developers’ mouths.
At BlizzCon we sat down with designer Matt Place and art director Ben Thompson to find out why they decided to choose the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan as the latest expansion and how tri-class cards will change the meta, plus got the scoop on how the Priest class is getting a shakeup, and what Hearthstone’s future release schedule is. Check out what we learned below.
1. Why Hearthstone Is Going to Gadgetzan
“It was a chance for us to really go somewhere fun and interesting the first time around and then make it even more fun the second time,” said Thompson. “So in the case of Gadgetzan, getting to play to the strengths of a city that has come alive again since the Cataclysm; now that it’s a dock city, as you heard in the opening ceremonies, the idea that a city that now is built on opportunity has attracted the opportunistic from all far and wide. As a result, you start to get these three crime families in specific who have taken over the city or are vying for control. You as the player can help them or hinder them, depending on what decks you’re making, in the search for that control.
“Gadgetzan itself is exciting because it was already separate from the prying eyes of the Horde and the Alliance and now we got to make it even more insular and closed in on itself and just these big walled in streets full of buildings. Played to that kind of breaking the rule, crime syndicate type of approach, which was a fun vibe.”
2. Tri-Class Cards Will Literally Change the Game
“Not only is it a new card type, but it kind of changes how you build your deck,” said Place. “If I had access to what the other classes that share my family have access to, what does that mean? How do I do my decks differently? That kind of blows your mind in a cool new fun way. Yeah, doing a lot new. We’ve got each of the crime families, they’re going to have their own unique way to play that we’re going to be revealing here in the next month which is going to be a ton of fun as well.”
Hearthstone’s New Cards in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan:
3. Gadgetzan Will Remix Familiar WoW Lore
“I think it was really interesting when you look at the three crime families to see what was the general breakdown of these families and how did they all kind of come together,” teased Thompson. “I think the Jade Lotus is an example of maybe the more obvious route if you loot at Panderia and how that really informed a lot of the Jinyu, the Hozen. All of these kind of different classes and racial groups coming together from Nazareth. When you look at something like the Grimy Goons or you look at the Kabali then it’s maybe a little bit less obvious. The Kabal as far as the backstory is my favorite in the sense that it’s these outcast magic users who all have broken the rules at some point or another in their groups and they’ve been cast out. As a result, they very much feel like if we can’t have access to magic, by god, we’re going to make sure everybody else does.
“And it’s going to come to cost and we’re going to prosper by sharing the rest of this with Azeroth. Like most things that are a copy of a copy though, the restricted mana, the red mana, not quite as stable. The results are maybe not as predictable as one would like, but certainly powerful nonetheless. And then the Grimy Goons very much plays to that kind of street enforcer. The toughs. The physical prowess of brawlers. Just a street brawler who, if you asked him or her, they would say they’re sticking up for the little guy and they’re protecting people and of course they pay me, but it’s because they appreciate it that much and you know, that kind of back alley goonism.”
4. But the Goal Is to Mix Things Up From Previous Hearthstone Expansions
“Even within Hearthstone we don’t want to repeat ourselves and release sets that sound very much or feel very much like previous sets. Also said in parallel with that is we don’t want to release sets where the lore is based in something that’s all too familiar from WoW. We did that. We played that raid. We did that feeling when we were in WoW,” said Thompson. “How can we change it so that it’s turning things on its head and giving players something they never knew they always wanted, hopefully? Like, wow, this is a totally new way to interact with this city, this mage’s town, this old god, whatever the case may be.”
Added Place, “That’s actually a ton of fun we had with the set. Doing all these races that people know from World of Warcraft and dressing them up with bowler hats and all these new crazy outfits. That was very deep. We kept making new designs that made us laugh. That’s a lot of the fun of Hearthstone is finding a setting that lets us do a lot of surprising funny Hearthstone charm parts.”
5. Gadgetzan Is Hearthstone’s Take on The Godfather
When talking about the inspiration for the expansion, Thompson said, “I think when talked early on about this, somebody had mentioned cops and robbers and the idea of the keystone cops kind of humor put with something like little Five Points in the Gangs of New York. How do you get that grittiness but how do you make it feel Hearthstone? How do you get the epic feel of something like The Godfather but then you kind of mesh it with something that feels a little bit more tongue-in-cheek and kind of lighthearted. There was a lot of invocation of all these different kinds backgrounds that we’re all very familiar with, because anytime you introduce something new if you can root it and anchor it in something familiar people are going to latch onto it much sooner and know exactly the story we wanted to tell. You’ve set them up for all the surprises you want to give them.”
6. But Not Every Expansion Will Have a Genre and Era Element
Though Gadgetzan is inspired by something Thompson called a “cops and robbers, kind of ’40s vibe,” and Karazhan was a ’70s disco dance party, don’t expect every expansion to have that clear genre and era tie-in. “It’s something I’m personally very cautious of, and I know we’ve had a lot of conversations around the office on is what I don’t think we want with the next set, what decade and what genre? It’s a trope and a decade. That’s certainly not what we want to do. I think it happened in this case that they followed but that’s just because they made sense to do it that way. Who knows what the next one will be?” said Thompson.
“We always look back at WoW. What was fun in WoW? What was interesting there? What’s new and coming up that’s just as interesting and fun as well?” he continued. “If there’s something that really leaps out, OK, that sounds like a good starting point. What are we going to do to turn it on its head, try something new with it? I would hold off longer each time now for looking at a decade as a solve or reason because I don’t think they get to be solves and reasons going forward. That said, if something just screamed for it or made sense, we’re not going to shy away from and not do it.”
7. Tri-Class Cards Have Different Tricks for Different Classes
“The way that these families affect the class when you kind of sign up for a class, you’re singing up for a family, and what that means to each class,” said Place. “One of the cool things is even though your playing Jade Lotus when you play a Rouge Shaman or Druid the way the Jade Lotus plays out in each of classes is different based on the class. They’ve got their different tricks. That’s something that’s super cool. We haven’t revealed a lot of the cards that make that obvious to players, but as we do over the next month I think people will see what we’re talking about. I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”
8. Don’t Expect New Classes Any Time Soon
“We’re super happy with the nine classes that are in right now and have been since release,” said Thompson. “That said, we’re not looking at this point in any way to add any new ones to it. If you consider just how the meta changes when you introduce 132 cards to a new set just with Gadgetzhan, that’s meta changing. That’s going to change a lot of things. You make one of them a tri-class card, that’s a whole new type of idea. Introducing of a tenth or an eleventh class at that point is just… I can’t even do the math. And I wasn’t good at math, but I can’t do the math on what that would do to the whole setup. We picked WoW for very specific reasons. We’re not going to run out.”
9. There Aren’t Plans for a Full Co-op Mode or Adventure
“We’ve toyed around with it in some of the brawls if you look at how those have played out. I don’t think that those have hit anything in such a way that that’s going to define an entirely new way to play,” said Thompson. “For the purpose of a brawl and the smaller version of the sandbox, it’s great for when we’ve been able to do it. We’re always looking for new and interesting ideas to change up Hearthstone and make it really fun and exciting. If that’s something that looks like it in the future, then we’ll figure out how to purpose it.”
10. Priests Are Getting a Shakeup
“A big goal for us with Means Streets was to give priests powerful options that can take it down different tracks,” said Place. “If you saw the card, the Drakonid Operative, which is incredible for Dragon Decks, we have the Talon Priest who’s great just in general. We’ve got a lot of cool control cards that we’re showing a couple of here as well — the Potion of Madness, which gets you right back into the game. That’s kind of our goal to say, hey, we want you to be able to pick and choose from the Mean Streets priest cards independent of which path you’re going on we’re going to have something for you so you can choose based on which deck you like, because there will be powerful potent stuff.”
11. Expect the Meta to Change
“Without spoiling new cards, does Shaman play the same way once it gets all its Jade Lotus cards? Right? Or does it play more the Jade Lotus path? I’m excited to see that,” said Place. “I think that it will, but I don’t know if I’m right. I’m super excited about the set. Each of these families, what is their impact on how the classes play. It’s no longer you’re just signing up for a class. That’s a big part of the set. You’re also signing up for that family. What does that mean to how you play?”
But he and Thompson think much of the changes will only become evident once the new pack is released. “It doesn’t matter how many developers, how many hours we put into it, how many balance questions we’re asking, how many aesthetic questions we’re asking to put into this thing and anything to come, we’re always constantly surprised by what we’re presented with by the players in the first hours after it’s released,” said Place.
12. Expect the Expansion Release Cycle to Stay the Same
“I think that’s how it’s worked out. I think we’ve been very happy up until now with the cadence and how that’s been coming around,” said Thompson. “Something like set rotation, having happened already once around the March time period of this year, and looking forward to the next time that rotates again and how that’s going to change the meta will help answer some of those things, for sure. At this point, we’ve been very happy with the adventure expansion roll-out plan and how all that’s coming together.”
Terri Schwartz is Entertainment Editor at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.
Source: IGN Video Games